Face grimacing, shoulders swaying and body rocking all over his bike, Chris Anker Sørensen went through his own private purgatory on today’s first real mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia, but it paid off in spades.

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The Saxo Bank rider fought his way up the Monte Terminillo and emerged from the fog at the summit to hit the line alone and victorious, emulating famous past victors such as Gino Bartali, Luis Herrero, Pavel Tonkov and Stefano Garzelli.

“I’m really really happy. It’s a great victory. This is the first mountain stage of the Giro, which is one of the biggest races in the world,” the 25 year-old Dane enthused. “Seven weeks ago I broke my right collarbone, so I wasn’t sure to be here for the Giro. It’s an incredible comeback.

“I wasn’t sure the breakaway would stay away. I tried to keep the pace high. Fortunately in the final climb I was fast enough to stay clear.”

Sørensen reached the finish precisely half a minute ahead of Simone Stortoni (Colnago-CSF Inox), who was also part of a seventeen man move which got clear with over 100 kilometres left in the stage. The duo, plus fourth-placed Evgeni Petrov (Katusha) were the sole survivors of the break, with the others being gobbled up on the final climb by a select group of race contenders.

Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) was the first home of these, jumping clear in the closing kilometres of the climb and finishing six seconds behind Stortoni in third. John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale) also succeeded in breaking the elastic, coming in slightly ahead of the maglia rosa group, which was 56 seconds back.

Scarponi and Cunego were probably the two most active, but nobody could get a lasting gap on Vinokourov, who showed well on the first day in the mountains. He has been very strong on the flat, but question marks existed about how he would tackle the climbs. Today’s ascent wasn’t as steep as the ones the riders will face later in the race, but he performed solidly and preserved his advantage over the others.

“I felt a bit tired today after the hard stage yesterday, but it was the same for everybody,” he said after the stage. “Omega Pharma-Lotto was the first team to ride behind the breakaway, then Lampre did it. As for myself, I controlled Evans. It was a perfect day for us.”

Losses on the first uphill finish

Behind, a number of other riders lost time due to the climb. Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) missed out by 26 seconds, although the latter actually moved up from tenth to sixth overall in the reshuffled general classification. His progression was thanks to the losses incurred by others who had been in the top-ten, namely David Millar (Garmin-Transitions), who conceded 17:55 and fell from third to 33rd overall; Vladimir Karpets (Team Katusha), who dropped two minutes and went from fourth to seventh, plus Linus Gerdemann and Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram), seventh and ninth overall this morning, who each lost seven minutes 16 seconds.

Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) also faded to lose a further two minutes, and said afterwards that he had given free rein to Tondo after he worked so hard for him yesterday. Sastre knew he didn’t have the legs and wanted to give Tondo a chance.

“I was fortunate to have the help of my teammates. Marcel Wyss was riding with me today. Tondo is in splendid form and he’s a rider who should be gradually pushing forward in the race,” he said. “If it weren’t for the riders who broke away, Xavi would have given our team something to really celebrate”.

The 2008 Tour de France champion had hoped to begin his fight back today, but there was more disappointment in store for him. “I pushed as hard as I could to be up near the riders in front and lose the minimum amount of time possible, but it has been a particularly tough start to the Giro due to the falls and the problems since the race began,” he explained.

He hopes to recover in the flatter days ahead, then show his true colours later in the race.

Early stalemate, then action

Wearing team kit bereft of the mud, spittle and grime that made the riders practically unrecognisable at the end of yesterday’s stage, 191 souls rolled out of Chianciano Terme under cloudy skies. The prospect was for another extremely tough day in the saddle, due to both the race’s first summit finish, and also due to reports that the finish had seen an overnight snow and freezing rain this morning.

The riders of the peloton remained en masse for the early part of the day, which was marked chiefly by the retirements of Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and fellow Italian Francesco Masciarelli (Acqua & Sapone). Petacchi had been suffering from bronchitis for several days and hadn’t sleep well overnight.

Despite efforts by some to go clear before the day’s first climb, that of the Monte Nibbio, the peloton hit the slopes together and there Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma Lotto) bolstered his hold on the climber’s jersey. The stage six winner beat Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Carlos Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli) to the summit, moving six points clear of Milram’s Paul Voss in the standings of that competition.

Several more attacks followed, with riders such as Jackson Rodriguez ( Androni Giocattoli), Steve Cumming (Sky) and Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) amongst the aggressors, but the only effect was a large split in the peloton. Most of the big names were in the first half, but one who was missing was the points leader Tyler Farrar (Garmin Transitions).

Sørensen had been looking forwards to the first day in the mountains, and confirmed afterwards that he had saved energy to be ready. “I came to this stage fresher than other guys because I took it easy yesterday,” he explained.

Once they were clear, the Astana team of race leader Alexandre Vinokourov and the Lampre squad of yesterday’s runner-up Damiano Cunego did much of the lead work in the chase. Because of this, the gap never went much over three minutes.

Ravard won the sprint at Via di Vittorio, then Hinault beat Rodriguez to take top points on the climb of Marmore.

A lack of cooperation in the break then saw some riders try to go clear, but the group started working better once more. The net result was that the lead went out to three minutes and 20 seconds with less than 25 kilometres remaining, making it mathematically possible for the final winner to come from the move.

Voeckler was doing much of the work and was holding off the Lampre/Milram chase behind, but the gap started coming down when the Acqua & Sapone and BMC teams also put riders on the front.

Sørensen was getting nervous and jumped away with 14 kilometres remaining. He was caught, but later joined up to a move launched by Stortoni with ten kilometres remaining. The Danish climber then pushed on alone with about six kilometres left, and began a long, agonising time trial towards the summit.

Behind, a battle was raging within the chase group. Briton Charly Wegelius (Omega Pharma-Lotto) slipped away, then Scarponi made a big move with 4.2 kilometres to go. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) covered it, but the acceleration put paid to the hopes of Sastre. Cunego then tried to scurry away, without any success.

Tondo succeeded in breaking the elastic with approximately four kilometres left, setting off on a drive which would yield him third on the stage. Gadret then got clear closer to the line, showing that he is back to his best form. As for the race favourites, they covered each other’s moves and closed down anything that might have posed a threat to their overall positions.

As was predicted beforehand, the climb was not quite steep enough to lead to a free-for-all. No matter; there’s plenty of time for that ahead.